Moments of Permanence -

From: tevriel.livejournal.com Date: January 18th, 2009 07:02 pm (UTC) (Link)

Well, see, I have, for about eight months now, been going through a serious depressive episode. Like, my nearest and dearest sometimes get to have the fun of wondering if I'll actually survive it, and at the times when survival is not the immediate issue, they just get to watch a whole lot of really unpleasant shit happening with my brain.

Like, "wow, so this is why people linked mental illness to demonic possession, you act like a totally different person... and kind of like possessed people in Supernatural" sort of thing.

I have a list of triggers. Since, at present, our objective is pretty much to keep me alive and going to regular sessions with my clinical psychologist, which are gradually getting me sane again, our major approach is currently trigger avoidance.

These triggers include:

- sexual violence
- abuse of children
- bad things happening to cats (since, for reasons I have been professionally advised are totally and absolutely natural, I have post-traumatic stress disorder about the death of Tabitha)
- references to the above, when I'm fragile

Certain people on my friends list have been known to post things describing/related to both sexual violence and child abuse without so much as a warning.

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From: the-xtina.livejournal.com Date: January 18th, 2009 08:16 pm (UTC) (Link)

I have one about bad things happening to cats, and apparently I have one for talking about suicidal tendencies, though it feels different.  (I get easily convinced, for the latter.)

I think I posted something that falls in that list where I didn't mention.  If so, I apologise for that; I try to keep people's triggers in my head (frex, a friend of mine has one about needles), but I didn't remember yours for some reason.

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From: tevriel.livejournal.com Date: January 19th, 2009 03:05 am (UTC) (Link)

I'll keep that in mind for catchup, since I didn't see yours. Forewarned is forearmed and all that.

I understand the suicidal thing, too. I'm a bit like that, but it's kind of a dangerous subject at the moment since a member of my extended social circle committed suicide last week. (In fact, his funeral is happening as I write this; I'm not there because, more or less, I couldn't handle it.) So it's something that certain people on my friendslist *do* get a total pass for writing about right now.

I'm also, in general, though, a lot more forgiving of people who *try* to be considerate, which you totally do.

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